carving

Mastering Tool Sharpening Techniques

Sharpening sharpening sharpening. I'm in the middle of working on a flat panel carving and in doing so I'm having to master not only using carving chisels but also sharpening them. I have now undertaken two carving workshops run by Silvio Apponyi. There are about 10 participants in each of these workshops all working on a variety of individual projects. I am attempting to recreate a 17th century Norwegian flat pane panel. This comes from a design that was created in a book called Norwegian carving by Odd Fauske. This is an interesting book based on a training manual by Odd Fauske and published by Ian Whittington and translated by his wife Elaine. The book contains the original Norwegian text and the English translation on the facing page. In order to do this I copied the design out of the book which was spread over several pages. I converted it to an svg file in a program called Inkscape. This program has a n auto trace function which allows a jpg or other image to be made into an svg file. The advantage is that the image is scalable without losing resolution. It is  similar to Adobe's Illustrator but is an open source project and it seems to be regularly updated. The project has resulted in me buying some additional carving chisels both new and second hand. .At the workshops there is the opportunity to borrow tools from other carvers to see how they suit my needs. I only buy after attending thee workshops to see what I actually need. This brings me to the subject of this article which is sharpening. It's almost like some sort of dark art. No matter how much equipment you [...]

By |November 27th, 2024|Categories: Carving|Tags: |0 Comments

Gouge Thoughts: Sharpening, Sweep, Size

In thirty years of teaching, I’ve learned (and sometimes failed to remember) the value of preparation beforehand and flexibility once things get started. I’ve been doing a lot of preparation for my upcoming class. Materials, logistics, and many other things. Much of it involves thinking through processes in detail with the student point-of-view in mind. […]Gouge Thoughts: Sharpening, Sweep, Size

By |July 30th, 2024|Categories: Carving|Tags: |1 Comment

Ancient Wood Carving

This article talks about the discovery of the oldest wood carving found in Britain, aged at around 6000 years old. The carving, which is believed to have been made by Neolithic or Early Bronze Age people, was found in a pile of rubble during construction work on a housing development in eastern England. The carving, which appears to represent an anthropomorphic figure, is a significant find as it sheds light on the life and beliefs of the people who lived in Britain during the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/jun/07/oldest-carved-piece-of-wood-to-be-found-in-britain-dates-back-6000-years

By |June 9th, 2023|Categories: Carving|Tags: |0 Comments

Wood for Turning

Spent the afternoon annoying the neighbours with the sound of my chainsaw.  Five wheelbarrows of wood that I will be using for woodturning.  Two species  were salvaged. Lots  of apple wood that came from a friend's renovation project. The apple tree made way for a timber deck. Lucky me! The olive wood was quite dirty as it included the root stump. I had to pressure clean that part in the vain hope that it would keep my chainsaw in good shape for a while longer.  The other wood came from an olive farm. The farmer is downsizing his farm from 700 trees to 500. He generously offered the trees with stumps attached to our turning club. He even had a tractor on standby to help load my trailer. I intend to carve some spoons with the apple wood. I actually harvested the wood in November 2017 and this post got lost in my draft folder. I have already carved several spoons form the apple wood. I hope some bowls will emerge from the olive stumps.    Olive StumpsApple and Olive Apple Wood

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